nowhere, ylisse
by Sara Jaye
Summary: Small Town AU. In the dead of a small factory town, discovering your lesbian love for your best friend over one summer is the easiest part of the journey.


The thing about Lissa's family was that they were so quirky, people forgot they were rich. Her parents had died when she was a baby so she and her older brother had basically been raised by their older sister and Frederick the housekeeper. Emmeryn was practically a saint except for the way she bit her nails and spit them across the room at night. Frederick was overprotective about little things like Lissa going to get the mail or Chrom not wearing gloves in the winter, but he barely batted an eyelash if one of them walked across town and spent the whole day at the pool.

And of course, Lissa had the standard best friend from a perfectly normal family. Except Maribelle was anything but standard. She was beautiful, intelligent, refined...a bit ornery and quick to write others off, but the heart underneath was good and she did her best to help people once they managed to earn her trust.

"Sometimes my family's so _boring_," Maribelle would sigh. Her father was the president of the town bank, her mother was a member of the PTA and her younger brother was on the soccer team. Sometimes Lissa envied her a little, but mainly for the fact that she had parents. She didn't mind that Chrom played hockey in the winter and video games in the summer, that Emmeryn juggled college and serving at the local Coldstone, or that Frederick was...Frederick.

"But they're so nice," she would tell her friend.

"I suppose so. But Eric needs to stop bothering you! I swear, ever since he turned twelve it's as if he thinks he's _in love_ with you!"

It wasn't just Eric. Maribelle had never liked any of Lissa's boyfriends or had many of her own, and for years Lissa had wondered why. Sometimes she let herself believe that _she_ was the one Maribelle wanted after all and was just too shy to say so. But if that were the case, Maribelle would have said something. She was the straightforward type, after all.

So they were just friends. They had sleepovers, went swimming, rode their bikes to the corner store for snow cones which they'd take to the empty school field and eat on the bleachers, sit on the roof at night and try to catch a glimpse of whatever movie was playing at the drive-in theater. Theirs was the only small town that still had a drive-in theater, a pay phone, and a soda fountain at the drugstore.

"I wonder when _we'll_ have a multiplex," Maribelle mused as they ate their snow cones in Lissa's back yard one afternoon. It was growing late and the air felt oddly warm and thick. Not uncomfortably so, just like something was hanging there and waiting to settle over them.

"Sometimes I think we're the last of the little towns out there. Especially when the rest of Ylisse is so big and fancy!" Lissa said, licking a drip of melting purple from her hand. "At least we don't live _too_ far from the big cities."

"And we have a library," Maribelle added. "Two towns over they have a shopping center and a Starbucks, but they still don't have a library! Imagine that!"

"I heard they were supposed to, but they ended up using the building for a greenhouse instead." Lissa took a bite of her snow cone, letting the ice melt between her teeth. "Oh, well. Maybe they'll get that library eventually."

"Perhaps." Maribelle leaned against her, still licking her own snow cone. She never liked to bite into ice cream or frozen treats, it made her teeth ache. This meant she always took forever to finish, but Lissa never minded. There were a lot of things about Maribelle she didn't mind that most people did, little things that could be trying sometimes but didn't matter. The way she tossed in her sleep, how she could spend up to an hour doing her hair, the way she held her pinky up even when she was drinking through a straw. Her fixation on manners even when she herself didn't always follow the rules. Her skill with the violin, but her refusal to play on anyone else's time but her own unless Lissa asked for a song.

It didn't matter how Maribelle drank, or when she played the violin. It was these little things that made her Maribelle, the best friend Lissa had ever had. The friend she hoped would be more someday.

"Lissa, darling?" Maribelle suddenly prompted. Her lips were bright red, only the ice remained in her cup. "There's something I'd like to talk to you about."

"Hm?" Lissa looked up from the last of her own snow cone. "What is it?"

"Well, as you might know, Ricken and I ended our relationship not too long ago," Maribelle began. "A few days before school ended for the summer, to be precise. It was an aimicable break, we agreed to remain good friends."

"Right," Lissa said. "He was what, the third one you broke up with?"

"Second," Maribelle corrected her, "I only went on one date with Vaike and we agreed it would never work between us."

"Oh, right."

"Anyway," her friend continued, "As we both know, I've...not had much experience in the field of dating boys. Everyone at school says I'm too difficult to keep a boyfriend for long, and I've simply let them believe that." Lissa frowned.

"Well, they're _wrong_. Maribelle, you're a wonderful person and it's not your fault you haven't found the right boy yet!" Maribelle tensed against her shoulder.

"Actually, I...I have." She dumped the rest of her colorless ice out onto the grass and crumpled the soggy cup in one hand. "It's just, well...Lissa, you're the most beloved person in our school-no, in this _town_! Every time a boy isn't willing to commit to you, I can't help wondering what's _wrong_ with him, why he wouldn't want to spend every waking moment with you! And then..." She sighed. "I lie awake at night thinking, _if it were me, I would treat her like a princess. I would never avoid her because I 'need my space' or 'want to play the field'_." Lissa felt her heart skip a beat; she drank the remains of her snow cone and tossed the cup aside.

"Oh, Maribelle...that's so sweet, but to tell the truth it's not always the boys who need space or don't want to get too serious," she said. "I just...well, even the ones I really liked, I didn't..." She took a deep breath, turning to look into Maribelle's eyes, the eyes she'd seen shine with joy and cloud over with sadness and spark with anger a dozen times but never realized just how_ blue_ they were. "They weren't _you_." Maribelle blinked slowly, her cheeks turning pink, and she shook her head in confusion.

"E...ex_cuse_ me?"

"I...really, _really_ like you! I mean, as more than a friend! I always thought...well, you never liked seeing me with Lon'qu or Vaike or Stahl and you yourself never had that many boyfriends and I just-" She shook her head, groaning in frustration. "Aargh, this was so much easier in my head!"

"Oh...oh, _Lissa_!" And suddenly Maribelle's arms were around her, nearly squeezing the breath from her chest. Then, cold red lips pressed against hers and she found herself kissing back and when they parted their lips had taken on a purple tinge; Maribelle's cherry and Lissa's blue raspberry.

"So I was right," Lissa whispered, lying down on the grass, taking the other girl with her.

"I've loved you since sixth grade," Maribelle confessed. "And all this time, you felt the same way."

"I guess we were pining for no reason, huh," Lissa laughed. The air suddenly felt lighter as the sky grew darker, the sun would set soon. They didn't have much of a view from the backyard, but they didn't need one. Their lips met again, and this time the kiss was slow and savory.

Frederick would be calling them to come in soon, and Lissa wished they didn't have to. The grass was soft underneath them, Maribelle was soft against _her_ and she just wanted to bask in this moment, this bright and warm epiphany on a balmy summer afternoon forever.


End file.
